


Dance of the Bluebloods

by PlayTheRain



Category: Homestuck
Genre: A bit sad, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-01
Updated: 2011-11-01
Packaged: 2017-10-25 14:32:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/271335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlayTheRain/pseuds/PlayTheRain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A troll Shakespearean tragedy of the pale quadrant.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dance of the Bluebloods

First bilunar perigree of the new Solar Sweep. An alien boy stand in his manor, by a workshop table. At his side, a glass of milk. On the table, coruscant robotic devices. On his face, glasses square and dark. In an hive nearby, a girl with mismatched horns steals into the night. The boy hears a pounding at his hive door. Something frantic and violent and scared, scared that he would not be there. He runs to the door with great leaps. He opens it wide.

AG: I...   
CT: D --> Vriska   
AG: why

Her face is wet and it's not raining. He opens his arms at the same time as she flings herself into them. She chokes when she tries to breath. There is blood on her hands. It isn't hers.

CT: D --> Vriska you have to be strong   
AG: 8ut why...   
CT: D --> Be strong   
AG: 8ut why does it have to 8e so hard.  
AG: I 8 it, I 8 it so much I 8 it 8 8 8   
CT: D --> Vriska  
CT: D --> It's going to be alright  
CT: D --> You are going to be alright

The girl suddenly jerks about in his arms. She wants to run away. The boy does not let her abscond. She flails on his face with her tiny fists. You had to me STRONG to hug Vriska Serket.

CT: D --> Vriska you're going to be alright  
CT: D --> because you're stronger than you look  
The little troll girl cries anew. She stops resisting and hugs him in return. Equius could not lay his hands on her back, mistrusting his strength. He runs his fingers in her dirty matted hair. He untangles them and put them in place.  
CT: D --> You are a bl00b100d  
The girl calms herself. Slowly at first, then incrementally.  
CT: D --> You live to win  
CT: D --> You stand on other people's ruin  
CT: D --> To dance the dance of the bl00b100ds  
CT: D --> Whatever happens, you survive the encore  
CT: D --> You come back  
CT: D --> And ask for more  
The boy waits for the girl to sort out her breathing. Her face stays buried in his shirt. The boy sits to offer better comfort. The girl allows herself to crumble and lean on his shoulder. She lets go a pleasant hum. A very small one, and the first of the night.  
CT: D --> Always mock the time with fairest show  
CT: D --> STRONG faces must hide what the weak hearts know  
The girl stifles softly.  
CT: D --> Do you want to speak about it  
Once she starts the little girl cannot stop.

AG: It was very l8 and I had him under control, Teezee had left just before, she was angry, said she would have let him go, she had hit me, hit me on the face with her gallow rope, 8ut that wasn't the problem, it happens all the time, I took him him and had him under control I really did. And then, then, I took him to HER, SHE was hungry, SHE yelled at me, he 8roke free, I told you 8efore, I can't do it perfectly, the mind control I mean, it just snaps and the person, the person is confused, doesn't know why he's there  
CT: D --> What happened?  
CT: D --> Tell me what happened Vriska  
AG: I had to do it, I, said to him, that, that I was trapped there too, offered him that we escape together, he said yes, he was scared but he smiled at me, turned his 8ack on me, the magic 8 8all in my hand, the magic 8 8all to his head, 8lood, 8lood from his head, on the ground, on me, SHE yelled at me to hurry up, called me weak, he was still moving, I hit him, hit him, he had smiled to me, he had, and I hit him...  
CT: D --> It's over  
AG: It should 8e natural, it should 8e easy, it's what trolls do.  
AG: So why am I like this sometimes.  
The girl has difficulty breathing.  
AG: I wish I was strong like you.  
CT: D --> Sometimes I wish I wasn't  
AG: Don't leave me alone.  
CT: D --> Very well, I will stay with you tonight  
AG: Not just tonight.  
AG: never  
AG: never leave me alone  
AG: or I don't know what I'll 8ecome

  
**Sweeps ago**   


A girl stands on the doorstep of a manor in construction. It is her new neighbor. Her hive was but a meager cave, the new troll must have though the place deserted. She steps up, rings the door, then she runs away. She does this often. Each time, a little boy opens the door. Each time, he has a neutral expression on his face. He stares at the empty arcade for the same amount of time before turning astern. He always looks ahead of him as if he would look at a rock on the ground. He also appears to be tired, and at the same time, he give the girl the impression that he is a boulder that cannot be bulged

One day, the girl does not run away. She stays at he opens the door. She prances up and down on the tips of her feet.  
AG: Hi!  
She thrusts her hands behind her back and waddles her butt from left to right. He looks at her, as deadpan as ever.  
AG: I'm your new neighbor.  
CT: D --> My name is equius  
CT: D --> What is your name?  
AG: My name is little spider  
CT: D --> Nice to meet you spider  
The little troll girl giggles.  
AG: I tricked you. I lied. My name isn't Spider. See you later Equius.  
And then the girl runs away.

  
**They grow closer, one day the girl is invited over**   


AG: Your hive is so cool. I want mine to be just as cool. What about him? Who's he?  
The girl ran ahead and jerked her finger toward a statue of a muscled troll while jumping up and down.  
CT: D --> This is Brutos  
CT: D --> He was so STRONG that they said he killed a man with his breath  
She ran to the next statue down the hall, gasped and pointed at him  
CT: D --> This is Zahhak  
AG: I think he looks like you!!!!!!!!  
CT: D --> He was a STRONGman during the Great Wandering nine centuries ago  
CT: D --> He wrestled hoofbeasts in a cage  
AG: Who is this one?  
CT: D --> A soldier called Romano  
CT: D --> They said he could sharpen weapons by pinching his fingers on the blade  
AG: Who's he, who's he?  
CT: D --> That is Hypero  
CT: D --> He was high captain of the ruffiannihilators for two hundred sweeps  
AG: Who's they?  
CT: D --> This one was a famous STRONGman in the rainbow circus  
CT: D --> He could chew titansteel alloy  
CT: D --> The one here is Keyser  
CT: D --> He was a combatyrant during the First Wave  
CT: D --> His unit was left behind on an hostile planet during a full retreat  
CT: D --> When the conquestships came back two sweeps later the planet was already conquered and he was the only troll on it  
AG: What about that one? He has a funny helmet.  
CT: D --> Darkleer  
AG: What did he do?  
CT: D --> He  
CT: D --> He was a great archeradicator and then a famous traitor  
AG: That sounds lame compared to the others,  
CT: D --> I think he deserves to be here  
CT: D --> He was STRONG but not like the way we think  
AG: Booooooooring.  
CT: D --> I don't think he's boring

  
**A sweep goes by so fast**   


A lankier boy is sitting silently and playing pokégrub on a gamedevice. Behind him a great stone musclemen is flexing his muscles. On his bicep, a little girl is climbing.  
AG: Congratulashions on getting your second name. Ah told you that you would winnish your classes before me. Ah don’t like them, ah don’t like teacher droids.  
The girl had just lost her wiggling teeth. She was not used yet to the oversized adult fangs growing in her mouth. They eagerly bit her lips if she mispoke.  
AG: Hey why doncha sah something?  
CT: D --> I am fighting a gym leader  
AG: Ah don't know what name ah'll pick when ah winnish.  
CT: D --> Pardon me if I 100k to be a100f on the subject of your full name  
CT: D --> It is not just e%citing me to any stretch  
CT: D --> Since you are a spider to me

Silence. The girl sits on the head of the strongman. She takes out a small diary from her pocket. She reads it diligently. It has her own symbol on the cover. It is dusty and ancient.

AG: Well ah think ah have an ahdea for a name but ah can't use it. You get culled if they catch you looking for your ancestor you know.  
CT: D --> You cannot know if she is yours  
AG: Well ah don't know it. Ah feel it.  
CT: D --> Unscientific   
AG: What about you, where did you pick Hahhack from?  
CT: D --> I heard he 100ked like me  
CT: D --> Oh shoot  
A game over music plays from the handheld device  
AG: Ah think ah heard that name before.

The boy turns off the gamedevice and sets it aside. He opens a volume on robotics and reads pensively. The girl wraps her legs around the neck of the statue and lets herself falls upside down. Her hair are long and dirty. They reach down and touch the boy on the ground. They cover his book. He absentmindedly brushes them aside just enough so that he can keep reading.

AG: Equius?   
CT: D --> Yes   
AG: Have you ever wished that someone would hurt you?   
CT: D --> I think that the memoirs you obsess over are giving you quaint ideas, spider   
AG: No shut up alwright. Now listen. What ah mean is, not just hurt you, like just hurt. Like, with feelings.   
CT: D --> I am afraid you will have to e%plain   
AG: You know what ah mean. All that dumb shit that the teacher droids makes us learn in regional classes. The stinky dumby quadrants. For example ah don't want to die right? But when ah think about a certain boy then. Well ah think ah would be fine if he killed me. Ah mean it's romantic yeah? Being fated to be with the person that kills you? Ah mean he's a bit weak right now but he can get better and stronger. Like you helped me. I can do that for him too. I can, I really can.   


The boy shifts awkwardly in his position.

CT: D --> Are we talking about  
CT: D --> Wanting  
CT: D --> Someone with control on you  
CT: D --> Who would hypothetically  
CT: D --> Beat you up  
CT: D --> Whereas that is something that  
CT: D --> That you want yourself  
CT: D --> Is that what we are talking about   
AG: Ah guess so.  
AG: But that's not all.  
AG: What if that person that we think about.  
AG: Well ah wonder what if it is a lowblood?  
AG: Can that be alwright?   
CT: D --> oh shoot  
CT: D --> I don't  
CT: D --> I don't know what to say about this  
CT: D --> It's really hot in this room

AG: Ah don't think it is.   
CT: D --> I think it's disgraceful, abhorrently 100d  
CT: D --> A scandal  
CT: D --> By a rustb100d, I don’t even  
CT: D --> I think it would be fearsome   
AG: Ah think ah know who you're thinking about. It's about that robot with the big curly horns. Ah think it's her. You're always working on that robot. Doing better versions of her.  
  
CT: D --> What  
CT: D --> Heavens no  
CT: D --> She is just a girl in my regional class  
CT: D --> She shares a teacher droid with me  
CT: D --> She's the lowest of the low  
CT: D --> Her b100d is disgusting, I am disgusting, no, oh shoot  
CT: D --> This conversation is over   
AG: Alwright. What's the biosource you're having for dinner?   
CT: D --> E%cuse me

The boy looks around him for something to wipe the sweat of his brow. He is has nothing at hand. He is midly annoyed.

CT: D --> Oh, synthetic hoofbeast   
AG: Ah wanna.   
CT: D --> You are incorrigible but very well

The girl often ate with him; her feeding duties for her custodian left her with no appetite. She was deathly thin already. He had to look out for a fellow troll, didn't he. It was another way to be STRONG. He smiles inside but doesn’t show it.

The boy turns on his handheld device and rekindles his adventures in the land of Pokégrub. The little girl is climbing on a statue, different one this time. She reads her crumpling little book for the umpteen times. She asks him every words she doesn't understand. Several of which the boy wished he didn't have to explain. That journal was definitely not for kids. And then the boy inexplicably feels that he wants to say something. He puts his game aside.  
CT: D --> Spider  
AG: Vriska  
CT: D --> Vriska I think we have a lot in common after all  
CT: D --> And I am glad we are neighbor  
CT: D --> If you will pardon me saying so in a somewhat blunt manner  
AG: That’s alwright I think that too.  
AG: Also ah think ah found a really good second name for me.  
AG: Of course ah can’t tell you.  
AG: It’s serket.  
The girl had bit her lips on the last word of her sentence. She pretended nothing happened, because she was strong.

 **  
**

**The boy grows up stern, the girl wild and proud**

 **  
**

Thanks to the boy, the girl masters her own wildness. Everything that is hard, she becomes enthralled to defeat. The sound that the girl struggled to pronounce around her fangs, now she says with gr8test glee in her quirk. Their hive construction is finalized. All droid classes, dispatched. Global internet access, given to them. The world is at their clawtips. And when things get too hard, she runs to him for strength be it night or day. And they never talk about it afterward. And that’s what she likes the most about it.

One day the boy meets another girl. A fateful encounter, in a forest remote. Things lead to things, as they often do, and it all comes down to a sad, rainy night during the dim season. The boy hears a pounding at his hive door. Something frantic and violent and angry. He knows and she knows that he knows that she knows. He unlocks the door only to see her neighbor kick it open. She is ignited, like a force of nature.

AG: What was I, for all these sweeps? A joke? Is that it Equius Zahhak?  
Her long hair are wet and dirty with mud. Something about the sight of it is like an arrow in the boy’s heart.  
CT: D --> No it is not  
AG: Then what? Explain me, oh great Equius Zahhak, tell me what I am? I'll tell you. I'm a dum8shit, a 8itch, and the gr8test moron on Alternia.  
CT: D --> No you aren't Vriska  
AG: She is not even one of us higher 8loods, she is nothing. What does she have I don't? I though we had a solid quadrant here. I though it was real.  
CT: D --> When you will find your true moirail you will understand  
CT: D --> You are destined for each other  
CT: D --> You know that this is the person who can calm your heart  
CT: D --> The missing part that makes you whole  
AG: SO WHY COULDN'T YOU BE MINE?  
CT: D --> I don't know  
AG: I WAS P8LE FOR YOU, I REALLY WAS  
AG: AND YOU RIPPED ME OUT OF YOUR QU8DRANT  
AG: FOR A 8EAST IN A FOREST  
CT: D --> You will not speak of Nepeta in such a manner  
AG: Ooooooooh Equius, you'll find that I can do whatever I want.  
AG: You can be sure I'll never listen to someone else  
AG: Or trust someone else  
AG: I'll be the gr8test 8itch on Alternia  
AG: 8ecause I live to win  
AG: and to get what I want  
AG: And you kn8w what the 8est thing is  
AG: You're the one who t8ght me that  
AG: And n8w I don't need you anym8re

A hive door is slammed shut. A boy walks quietly between rows of STRONGMEN. The air is wet and cool. It feels to him like it was going to rain forever. Just more and more rain until all of Alternia drowns. On her side of a crevasse, in her manor-hive that stood like a twin of his, a mad girl punches and kicks everything of hers. She pauses only to laugh sickly.

  
**A certain day comes**   


A boy hears an explosion at his neighbor's house. A great distance he covers in strong leaps. A girl he finds in her room ruined. A girl he knows, less an arm and an eye. She is abed in a pool of her cerulean blood, the cape of dignity he shrouded her with. She is delirious, she insults him on sight. She bites him when he takes her in his arms. She bleeds on him.  
AG: I don't need you, fuck you Equius, fuck you and the hoof8east you rode in on. Go to fricking hell.

Days and nights join in hands for the dance of the bluebloods. A wounded girl lies in a boy's recuperacoon. He sleeps on the floor and awaits a replacement unit. Sometimes he looks for a very long time at his hand where she bit him.

A boy worried when a girl's life is nearly lost to a high fever. She mutters about everybody betraying her, everybody, everybody. His many towels take their turn on her anguished forehead.

A girl nursed to health during a sad and bleak dim season. She hisses and tries to bite him with every strength she regains.

A metallic prosthesis is worked upon. Long nights lead to sleepless days. A final model is revealed to a coughing girl. For the first time the girl stops struggling. She only stares silently. She reminds him that he will regret it. That she will kill everybody he ever cared about. That she will kill him too. Because if he wants her to be a bitch then he can show her how good she became at it. The boy frowns and does not speak a word. He works on the arm pithily.

Another infection delays her recovery. Sickness tries to claim her again, the boy says no. The final prosthesis is affixed. Her health conquered for good. A girl returns to her hive. Many carpenter droids are already summoned for repair work. Her lusus is already cared for. She had survived another round of the dance of the bluebloods.

And last farewells come.

AG: I am not going to thank you.   
CT: D --> I don't e%pect you to   
AG: I will never thank you.   
CT: D --> I don't want you to   
AG: I will h8 you forever. Now leave me the fuck alone.   
CT: D --> Good bye spider

An old name. The girl quiver where she stands, as if douched by the coldest water. For the shortest time her anger doesn't exist. None of the smoldering past exists. All that is left is them, looking at each other without any words to say. Both wondering how they got where they are, and if they could ever go back to what it used to be. Then Vriska regains her composure. She takes a great breath, closes her mouth. A door is shut slowly.

On his way back to his hive, a boy with a seemingly flat countenance ponders about things with too many feelings in his head. One thing was sure. He was going to tell Nepeta to stay well away from Vriska, and he would make sure that she did. But he was going to keep an eye on Vriska himself. He can handle her. He's strong. And maybe they would mend bridges one day. Or at least she would pretend to. And before she would try to backstab him, he would enjoy it for as long as it lasts.


End file.
